


All Things Familiar

by glim



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: Babies, Domestic, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-27 01:56:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glim/pseuds/glim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein there is an early morning, a couple plush dinosaurs, and an early evening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Things Familiar

**Author's Note:**

> Written for readbeforesleep's prompt at glomp_fest: _Merlin/Colin has successful acting career, Arthur/Bradley has chosen to stay home to raise their adopted/surrogate children. Basically schmoopy, lovely daddy Arthur/Bradley with adoring, proud husband Merlin/Colin._ Thanks to kivrin for beta reading.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Mmn." Colin pressed his face into the back of Bradley's neck and sighed. "Early?" he asked, voice raspy-edged with sleep, and brushed his lips behind Bradley's ear. "Sort of early?"

" _Very_ early."

"Too early to be awake?"

Bradley hummed an affirmative response and curled around the pillows a bit further. This didn't stop Colin from kissing the back of his neck and stroking a hand down his side, then curling in to nuzzle warm kisses over his shoulder. Really, it _was_ too early. Any time before the alarm went off was too early.

"Col..." The thought of protesting dissipated from Bradley's sleep-fuzzed mind when the warm lips that had skimmed the back of his neck moved to the dip between his neck and shoulder to kiss more firmly. How Colin could actually be awake this early after having stayed at rehearsal so late last night did cross Bradley's mind, but he allowed that thought to slip away, too. "... s'nice, that..."

"Yeah? Nice enough that you don't mind being awake an hour or so earlier this morning? Didn't want to waste any of my time home today sleeping."

Bradley gave another pleased hum of a reply. He couldn't remember the last time Colin was awake before he was or the last time he was this eager this early. He could, however, remember how much he loved the rough, deep sound of Colin's voice first thing in the morning, and how he would start to get hard just from listening to Colin murmur wordless and low over his skin. Before he could press his body into the curve of Colin's along his back, a soft cry came from the direction of the night table. Both he and Colin stilled, and Bradley pulled away with a sigh after a few minutes.

"Ah, it sounds like somebody else is up." Bradley shifted to listen to the few little urgent cries coming from the monitor. "Up early, too," he added after taking another look at the bedside clock.

"And hungry?" Colin sat up along with Bradley, yawning and rubbing his chest.

"Well, I doubt he just wants to have a nice good morning chat. Breakfast will have to be involved."

"I can go --"

"What? Oh, no, it's fine. I'm used to being up absurdly early. You rest." Bradley leaned in to nuzzle a kiss into Colin's hair, smiling when Colin reached to pull him back in close. "Mm... bring you tea after?"

"Please?"

Bradley gave Colin's hair another kiss. He'd grown it out for the new play and the bedhair was truly fabulous. "Maybe we'll make you breakfast..." The baby made a louder, more displeased whimpery noise and Bradley shook his head. "I swear he knows when you're going to be be home and awake for the whole morning."

"He's rigged up the monitor to work both ways."

"Oh god. That's a _horrifying_ thought."

Colin laughed and stretched his arms above his head; he lowered them down around Bradley's neck to bring him in closer. He was quiet for a second, then smiled and brushed his nose over Bradley's. "Hey. Good morning."

"Good morning," Bradley murmured and returned the smile. It was a grey, damp morning, the sort that promised rain for the afternoon, and a little more time in bed wouldn't've gone amiss. They had about two more seconds of quiet before Davin sounded like he was going to start wailing for his bottle. Bradley snagged his blue robe on the way out of the bedroom and pulled it on as he shuffled to the baby's room.

"Good morning, little boy. You're up early today." Bradley leaned down into the baby's cot and smiled when Davin's little fussy sounds turned happier. "Are you hungry? Or were you just lonely here on your own?"

Davin wriggled in his cot and gave Bradley the toothless smile of recognition that he'd starting giving to only Bradley and Colin in the past few weeks. Bradley's chest still swelled proudly for a moment at the clear evidence that his little son recognized him, and wanted to held or fed by him or Colin. Davin reached up toward Bradley and started to fuss a little once more, but calmed when Bradley picked him up and rubbed his back.

"Come on, let's have breakfast. Then we'll go see Da, yeah? Yeah... You like it when your Da is home from work in the mornings. You can teach him how to play dinos..."

Davin voiced a few happy little baby sounds at Bradley and nestled in against his shoulder, and was quite content to get carried through the flat and half-doze for a few minutes while Bradley started breakfast.

"Please don't even tell me you've decided you want breakfast earlier every morning. Daddy will still love you, but he's been desperately hoping you wouldn't turn out to be a morning person."

Davin gurgled at him and squirmed around a little when Bradley patted him on the bottom. He had on the little green and white organic cotton blanket sleeper Colin had randomly bought him one day simply because it was green and had a little aeroplane on the front.

"Even your Da doesn't want to get out of bed yet." Bradley gave Davin another pat on the bum when that elicited another happy sound. "You really did just want company, didn't you, Dav?"

Bradley wasn't only being nice by letting Colin stay in bed a little longer, though he was certain Colin needed the extra rest. Most of his mornings really did look like this now: wake up absurdly early, put the kettle on for tea, make up the baby's bottle, and spend the time before breakfast feeding and then cuddling with Davin.

After nearly four months of fussing about eating and sleeping, they'd finally fallen into a pattern. Davin had been such a fussy newborn that the both of them had been completely exhausted those first few months.

And he'd been so _tiny_ , Bradley thought as he watched Davin take his bottle. Such a tiny little thing who had only a few wisps of peach-fuzzy hair and who had to have all his sleeves folded up a couple times. Now he had a decent amount of soft, fluffy, dark hair, big blue eyes, and a whole new set of clothes for the next few months.

"You're definitely going to need new clothes if you keep eating like this. That's my good boy," Bradley murmured as Davin ate, then smiled at the baby and cuddled him close when Davin reached for the hand he had on the bottle. "And you're _definitely_ starting to really look like your Da..."

It wasn't just the dark hair and blue eyes, either. His ears were sort of Colin-ish and his _smile_ , God, Bradley could see more and more of Colin in Davin's smile every day. There'd been a moment, months before Davin was born, when Bradley had wondered and worried a little what it would be like to have a baby who wouldn't look like him, but more like either Colin or like the friend who'd agreed to carry the baby for them.

Which, really, was foolish, because Davin was perfect and adorable. Bradley could've done without the inconsistent sleep patterns and the random spitting-up and fussiness that were part of his every day life, but, now? No. No, he really couldn't imagine having a son who didn't look so much like his husband.

Who had decided, after Bradley left the bedroom, only to sleep in for another hour or so. Colin ate some toast quickly, then put his mug aside once he finished his tea and cuddled Davin into his arms so Bradley could eat his own breakfast more slowly. "Hello you... you've been talking to me all morning, Dav. You want to tell me what you're going to do with your Daddy today? Yeah? Really?"

Davin continued to babble happily at Colin and laughed when Colin took a couple of his soft dinosaur toys and started playing with them for Davin. The little yellow stegosaurus made him laugh and Davin reached for it eagerly; he put one of the feet in his mouth with a pleased, satisfied sound when Colin handed it over to him.

"Can I trust you to look after your Da?" Bradley asked and pressed a kiss to Davin's cheek. "Mm? If I go shower, you won't let him get bored, will you, Davin?"

Davin drooled happily on the stegosaurus and squealed when Bradley kissed him again and petted one of his feet. He reached for Bradley and got another kiss for his trouble, and afterward was just as happy to have another dinosaur to play with when Bradley moved away.

"Shower?" Colin asked and smiled as Bradley nodded. "Go on. Take as long as you like, I don't need to be at the theater until just around noon."

"I am absolutely taking advantage of that. In multiple ways. Mostly ways where you let me laze around on the sofa or eat my food as leisurely as possible."

"I noticed. Now: _Go on_." Colin gave Bradley a little shove with the pink tyrannosaurus rex he was holding and had it roar at him, making Davin squeal with delight. It was so easy to make him laugh now that he was a little older; dinosaur noises were his favorite, and Colin was definitely getting quite good at them. "Actually, no -- wait."

Bradley turned back, wrapping his arms over his chest after having unknotted the belt to his robe. "Yeah?"

"Are you, um… you're having a good morning?" Colin asked, and glanced down away from Bradley for a moment before looking back up and offering him an unexpectedly shy smile.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

Colin shrugged. "It's just… I'm hardly even home _and_ awake this early, and you always are, getting loads done at home, looking after Davin. Yes, we're talking about you," he added, tickling Davin's tummy when he started talking to Colin again. "I wanted to do something good for you. For both of you, yeah, but especially for you."

Bradley hesitated for a second, frowning, then took the few steps back to Colin and swooped in to kiss Colin with sudden overwhelming warmth. "I'm having a seriously great morning. But, if you could come home a little earlier tonight? Sort of doubt I'd have a problem with that."

*

Bradley put Davin down for a nap and sent Colin off to work, thought about cleaning up the sitting room, and ended up stretching out on the sofa for a while instead.

He missed it sometimes, the work.

About a year after _Merlin_ 's last season had wrapped up, he and Colin started seeing each other. Or, well, it was more like this: they started seeing each other whenever they could both be in the same place at the same time and not be working all day. After a couple years, made up of Colin doing independent films and a good deal of theater all over Britain and Bradley doing a few films and a decent amount of television work, they'd decided being apart for weeks – or sometimes months – was getting ridiculous.

And so, after years of attempting to not be in a serious, expectations-laden relationship, Bradley and Colin found themselves looking at flats in London and, in the span of a few weeks, discovered that they were very much in a relationship scenario. complete with serious expectations and future prospects.

It had been amazing. Sudden and too fast and too drastic and there'd been so many things to buy and pack and the first night they'd spent in their first flat together, they spent on the floor, wrapped in blankets and wrapped up around each other.

They must've done something right, though, because it _worked_. After the first smallish flat, they had a less small flat, then what might've even been termed a slightly large-ish flat, and once they'd somehow found a nice sized and affordable multi-bedroom flat, they had Davin.

 _Davin_. How he ended up with one of the most Irish names Bradley had ever heard was still a mystery to him. They'd planned on naming him after a family member, but Colin had decided, minutes after Davin was born, that that was the only suitable name for their new little boy.

"I think it means 'little deer'," Colin had said, his face fond and eyes shining.

Bradley had been skeptical, but the name was cute, and Davin had been warm and soft and real in his arms, and when Colin had stroked their baby's cheek with one careful fingertip, well, it hadn't been in Bradley to disagree.

Just as Colin hadn't disagreed when Bradley decided he ought to be the one who'd stay home and take care of Davin, at least for the first year or two. Not that he didn't love acting as much as Colin did, he just loved it in a different way, a way that would allow him to take a few years off, do some voice-over work here and there, and go back later with just as much if not more interest.

He did miss it, though, the acting work. But not nearly as much as he'd miss the at-home fathering work if he had to leave that job mere months after Davin had been born.

*

"Home early and with take-away? Okay, _seriously_ not objecting. But curious as to what I actually did to deserve so much Chinese take-away?" Bradley eyed the massive bag of food Colin had brought home for dinner. "You do realize that I don't actually eat my weight in stir-fry most evenings, right?"

"Oh. I suppose I might have ordered a, um, considerable variety." Colin put the bag down, wriggled out of his coat and scarf, and took Davin out of Bradley's arms. "I wanted to surprise you, but couldn't decide what you'd feel like eating, so I chose a few dishes I know you like. The spicy beef, and chicken, and --"

"-- and two kinds of soup?" Bradley peered into the bag as he carried it down the short corridor. They'd be eating Chinese for the next two or three nights, which, to be honest, was better than finishing off the weird vegetable casserole thing Colin had made the other night.

"Ah, well. That might've been me being indecisive about what I'd want."

"Bizarre," Bradley said, but fondly, and followed Colin into the kitchen.

"Ah, Davin, what do you think Daddy wants? Spicy beef or chicken? _Both_? Yes, I agree, that was really smart of me to bring both home for him. Yes! Yes, sweetheart, that's right." Colin bounced Davin in his arms and kissed Davin's little hand after he patted his Da on the face.

They gave Davin his dinner first, with Colin taking over feeding Davin tonight, whilst Bradley went through the take-away and served up soup and rice and various stir-fry dishes for the both of them. He did the washing up, too, and spent it listening to Colin having a very enthusiastic conversation with Davin on the dinosaur play-mat.

"Do you know what the nicest thing about having you come home early is?" Bradley asked a few hours later, once Davin had gone to sleep and Colin had brought him a glass of wine and curled up with him on the sofa.

"Hmm… no more strange veggie casserole for dinner?" Colin put his half-finished glass of wine down and nuzzled Bradley's fringe until he rested his head on Colin's shoulder. "Somebody else to change nappies?

"Ah. Mm. I wasn't too subtle about that veggie thing, was I? It _was_ strange. And unnatural..." Bradley leaned in to kiss Colin's neck, smiling against his warm skin, and let Colin take his glass away and put it aside, too. "Should I make you keep guessing?"

"I can think something a little more fun than that." Colin's breath stirred through Bradley's hair and he nuzzled at him again.

Bradley murmured a quiet, pleased sound into Colin's neck and kissed him again, then moved his lips slowly over Colin's skin with a light, tickling sensation that first had Colin shivering, then tipping his head to the side.

"The best part… the very best part is that you're home, that you're home and talking to Davin and laughing and sitting here with me. And I know that you can't do this all the time. I knew that when we decided months ago about this. But it's really good."

Colin sighed out a quiet 'oh' of a reply, his body pressing in, near and warm, to Bradley's. He shifted to slip one hand up under Bradley's tee shirt and stroked as long as Bradley kept on kissing and licking at his neck. When Bradley brushed his nose over Colin's ear, Colin trembled and gasped, the sound simultaneously quiet and breathy and needy.

Which only had Bradley nosing in against Colin's sensitive ear some more. He loved the little sounds Colin would make whenever he did this: trace the very tip of his nose around the curve of Colin's ear, breathing lightly enough for it to tickle; nuzzle into the soft, curled hair behind his ear, only kissing him when the needy sounds become more desperate. He loved how Colin would shiver, how he'd get so hard so fast, how he'd get so worked up and eager.

He loved how he knew Colin well enough to get him worked up with arousal before they even left the sofa for the bedroom.

Once they got to bed, though, all their touches and kisses turned to desperate blur.

"Maybe this is my favorite part," Bradley muttered.

Colin looked up from where he was mouthing down the length of Bradley's torso and rested a hand at Bradley's hip. "Slightly less rushed sex?"

"S-slightly. Oh god." He arched up at the wet flick of Colin's tongue over the head of his cock and made the silent decision that yes, _yes_ , this was his favorite part of having Colin home early: the warmth and blurring and the deep, satisfied sleep that would come at the end of a day like today.

*

The next day was back to the usual rush of early morning attempts at organization. Colin was up an hour earlier for work and Davin once again decided six was a better time than six-thirty for breakfast.

"I'm telling you he knows your schedule better than you do."

Colin smiled as he rubbed a towel through his damp hair and leaned down to kiss Davin's fluffy hair. "Of course he does, my clever little boy. Finish that bottle, all right, Dav?"

Davin gurgled up at Colin and, after a little coaxing, went back to his breakfast. To be fair, the flurry of activity in the flat when Colin was running late was probably more interesting than his formula.

"Oh, I need to go..." Colin leaned in to kiss Bradley, somehow finished drying his hair and managed shuffling into his coat without getting the two processes confused, and made it halfway to the door before returning to kiss Bradley again. "We have a leftover take-away and white wine date tonight, so no falling asleep on the sofa."

"Ah, you make the sleep deprivation so worth it."

"Of course I do."

Bradley leaned his forehead against Colin's. "Yeah. Yeah, you do."


End file.
